SALMONELLA CONTINUES TO BE A MAJOR CAUSE OF HUMAN FOODBORNE ILLNESS, AND CONSUMPTION OF POULTRY PRODUCTS IS ONE OF THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS PROBLEM. DESPITE DECADES OF RESEARCH ON SALMONELLA, POULTRY PRODUCERS STILL GRAPPLE WITH ITS CONTROL. MANY SALMONELLA OUTBREAKS ATTRIBUTED TO POULTRY PRODUCTS INVOLVE NEW OR DIFFERENT TYPES OF SALMONELLA NOT PREVIOUSLY FOUND BY PRODUCERS, OR NOT PREVIOUSLY CAUSING MAJOR ISSUES RELATED TO HUMAN ILLNESS. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO ENABLE POULTRY PRODUCERS TO BE PREDICTIVE, RATHER THAN REACTIVE, TO THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF SALMONELLA IN POULTRY OPERATIONS. WE WILL ANALYZE THE GENOMES OF OVER 25,000 SALMONELLA FROM POULTRY AND HUMANS, AND USE THIS INFORMATION TO BUILD A COMPREHENSIVE GENOMIC DATABASE. THIS DATABASE WILL ALLOW ANYONE TO RAPIDLY ANALYZE THE DNA FROM SALMONELLA ISOLATES COMING DIRECTLY FROM POULTRY FARMS, AND PREDICT IF CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED IN THESE SALMONELLA THAT NOW MAKE THEM A GREATER RISK FOR PERSISTENCE IN THE BIRDS, OR AN ENHANCED RISK FOR CAUSING HUMAN DISEASE. THIS PROJECT WILL EMPOWER POULTRY PRODUCERS TO RESPOND PROACTIVELY TO EMERGING SALMONELLA IN REAL TIME. AS A RESULT, POULTRY PRODUCERS WILL BE ABLE TO BETTER MITIGATE SALMONELLA ON FARM BEFORE THEY CAUSE LARGE OUTBREAKS IN HUMANS, THUS REDUCING THE BURDEN OF ILLNESS FROM THE CONSUMPTION OF CONTAMINATED POULTRY PRODUCTS.